Ending on a good note

Wake Forest ended a somewhat unpalatable season with a dessert worth remembering yesterday by rallying past Navy to a 29-19 victory in the first EagleBank Bowl in front of 28,777 at RFK Stadium.

Riley Skinner, voted the game's Most Valuable Player, completed all 11 of his passes for 166 yards and a touchdown. Retread tailback Kevin Harris carried 24 times for a career-high 136 yards as the Deacons avenged a regular-season home loss to the Midshipmen during which Skinner threw four interceptions and lost a fumble.

As a result, they closed their season at 8-5 and washed away some of the bitter taste of coming up one victory short of the ACC championship game. Navy also finished 8-5.

"The thing we stressed to our football team is this was a heck of a season, " Coach Jim Grobe said. "We've had a really good year.

"It's not as good as we wanted because we really wanted to be playing in the championship game. But eight wins isn't too bad against the teams we were playing."

Skinner's performance made amends for his earlier game against the Midshipmen, which he has repeatedly called the worst of his career.

"If you're a competitor you're going to want another shot at those guys and come back and try to get some revenge -- and not have the last game be the last thing you think about when you think of Navy," Skinner said.

Yesterday's game began almost as an extension of Navy's 24-17 victory on Sept. 27. The Midshipmen, taking advantage of a fumble by Alphonso Smith, bolted to a 13-0 lead over the first 20 minutes and were driving through Deacons' territory a possession later.

Smith halted the momentum by intercepting a pass from Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada at the Wake Forest 2, and the Deacons' offense turned it in their favor by driving 98 yards for a 4-yard touchdown by Josh Adams.

The drive, which tied Wake Forest's longest of the season, was halted momentarily when officials ruled that Harris fumbled at the Deacons' 16. The call was reversed after a review.

"That fumble could have been bad for us," tight end Ben Wooster said. "Thank God for that."

Smith's interception was the 21st of his career, which broke the ACC record held by Dre' Bly of North Carolina since the 1998 season. He was he was anxious to make up for the fumble he lost on an orbit sweep while playing on offense for the first time since last season's 24-10 victory over Connecticut in the Meineke Bowl.

"You know you've got to redeem yourself," Smith said. "My team counts on me and I count on my team.

"So when I do something to hurt the team you've got to do something to help out the team."

From the time that Smith picked off the pass, the Deacons outscored Navy 29-6. They took the lead at 14-13 on Adams' 5-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, weathered a touchdown by Navy that put the Midshipmen back ahead 19-14 (Kaheaku-Enhada threw incomplete on the two-point conversion attempt) and immediately regained the lead with an 80-yard drive for their third touchdown.

Skinner completed four passes in the drive for 69 yards, the last finding Wooster, his roommate, in the back of the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown.

Skinner then completed a pass to Devon Brown for the two-point conversion and a 22-19 lead.

"When we went down it just seemed like it was no big deal to our players," Grobe said. "Once in awhile, your players get in a panic mode. They get the wide-eyed look on the sideline. We didn't have that.

"So I really didn't need to say anything to them. I felt pretty good about the mentality of our team at that point."

Navy appeared to have the answer when Shun White returned the ensuing kickoff all the way the Wake Forest 13 before being pulled down from behind by Cyhl Quarles. But Trey Grissom, a sophomore linebacker from Garner, was called for holding and the Midshipmen, forced to start the drive at their 27, managed only one first down before punting.

Coach Ken Niumatalolo of Navy noted the impact of the holding call.

"I'm still looking for that one," Niumatalolo said. I thought that was a huge call. It changed the momentum of the game.

"Every game you're going to get calls back and forth. That's part of the game. They won the football game. I'm not going to take anything away from Wake."

Navy's defense held, providing the offense with one more chance to overtake the Deacons. But after White was dropped for a 3-yard loss on second down by Brandon Ghee and Matt Robinson, Kaheaku-Enhada fumbled on two straight plays. The first was recovered by teammate Eric Kettani. The second, forced by linebacker Stanley Arnoux, was recovered by Wake Forest's Chantz McClinic at the Navy 36.

Two plays later fullback Rich Belton barreled off left tackle for a 35-yard touchdown and a 29-19 lead with just 54 seconds remaining.

Safety Chip Vaughn, one of 16 seniors who played their final game for Wake Forest, said that as tough as Navy was, the Deacons finally wore then down. Wake Forest outgained the Midshipmen 405 yards to 253 for the game, and 211 yards to 114 in the second half.

"It was our last game together, so we were going to give it everything we've got, every ounce of energy," Vaughn said. "It was out last game, literally, so we put everything out there.

"I think we came in here and established ourselves that we were going to be the aggressive team. We were going to enforce our will on them. We're bigger, faster, stronger. Why not?"

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

Wake Forest 0 7 7 15 -- 29


Navy 10 3 0 6 -- 19

First Quarter

Navy--FG Harmon 40, 10:14.

Navy--R.King 50 fumble return (Harmon kick), 7:51.

Second Quarter

Navy--FG Harmon 47, 12:32.

WFU--Adams 4 run (Swank kick), :36.

Third Quarter

WFU--Adams 5 run (Swank kick), 5:50.

Fourth Quarter

Navy--Kaheaku-Enhada 2 run (pass failed), 12:30.

WFU--Wooster 8 pass from Skinner (Brown pass from Skinner), 7:52.

WFU--Belton 35 run (Swank kick), :54.

A--28,777.

TEAM STATISTICS

WFU Navy

First downs 18 12

Rushes-yards 48-239 48-221

Passing 166 32

Comp-Att-Int 11-11-0 2-7-1

Return Yards 25 1

Punts-Avg. 4-40.3 3-42.3

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 2-1

Penalties-Yards 6-55 3-20

Time of Possession 30:07 29:53

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Wake Forest, K.Harris 24-136, Belton 5-46, Skinner 7-29, Adams 7-13, Rinfrette 3-12, A.Smith 1-4, Team 1-(minus 1). Navy, Kaheaku-Enhada 15-83, S.White 14-71, Kettani 14-50, Doyle 1-10, Shinego 3-5, Dobbs 1-2.

PASSING--Wake Forest, Skinner 11-11-0-166. Navy, Kaheaku-Enhada 2-7-1-32.

RECEIVING--Wake Forest, Boldin 4-66, Brinkman 2-51, K.Harris 2-36, Wooster 1-8, Mars.Williams 1-7, Belton 1-(minus 2). Navy, Barnes 2-32.